full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Christopher Soghoian: Government surveillance — this is just the beginning


Unscramble the Blue Letters


So as I said before, governments that don't really have the roeeusrcs to build their own tloos will buy off-the-shelf surveillance software, and so for that reason, you see that the government of, say, Tunisia, might use the same software as the government of Germany. They're all buying off-the-shelf stuff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States does have the bugdet to bilud their own surveillance technology, and so for several years, I've been trying to figure out if and how the FBI is hacking into the computers of surveillance targets.

My friends at an organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- they're a cviil society group — obtained hundreds of documents from the FBI diielntag their next generation of surveillance tloiegceohns. Most of these documents were heavily redacted, but what you can see from the slides, if I zoom in, is this term: Remote Operations Unit. Now, when I first looked into this, I'd never heard of this unit before. I've been studying sanrlcviuele for more than six years. I'd never herad of it. And so I went online and I did some reescrah, and ultimately I hit the mother lode when I went to leikdnin, the social networking site for job seekers. There were lots of former U.S. government contractors who had at one point worked for the Remote Operating Unit, and were describing in suprsniirg detail on their CVs what they had done in their former job. (Laughter) So I took this information and I gave it to a jnoasrluit that I know and trust at the Wall Street Journal, and she was able to ctoanct several other former law erncefmonet officials who spoke on background and confirmed that yes, in fact, the FBI has a dedicated team that does nothing but hack into the computers of surveillance targets. Like gmmaa and Hacking Team, the FBI also has the cailtaipby to remotely activate webcams, microphones, steal documents, get web bowinrsg information, the works.

Open Cloze


So as I said before, governments that don't really have the _________ to build their own _____ will buy off-the-shelf surveillance software, and so for that reason, you see that the government of, say, Tunisia, might use the same software as the government of Germany. They're all buying off-the-shelf stuff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States does have the ______ to _____ their own surveillance technology, and so for several years, I've been trying to figure out if and how the FBI is hacking into the computers of surveillance targets.

My friends at an organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- they're a _____ society group — obtained hundreds of documents from the FBI _________ their next generation of surveillance ____________. Most of these documents were heavily redacted, but what you can see from the slides, if I zoom in, is this term: Remote Operations Unit. Now, when I first looked into this, I'd never heard of this unit before. I've been studying ____________ for more than six years. I'd never _____ of it. And so I went online and I did some ________, and ultimately I hit the mother lode when I went to ________, the social networking site for job seekers. There were lots of former U.S. government contractors who had at one point worked for the Remote Operating Unit, and were describing in __________ detail on their CVs what they had done in their former job. (Laughter) So I took this information and I gave it to a __________ that I know and trust at the Wall Street Journal, and she was able to _______ several other former law ___________ officials who spoke on background and confirmed that yes, in fact, the FBI has a dedicated team that does nothing but hack into the computers of surveillance targets. Like _____ and Hacking Team, the FBI also has the __________ to remotely activate webcams, microphones, steal documents, get web ________ information, the works.

Solution


  1. tools
  2. contact
  3. capability
  4. build
  5. journalist
  6. browsing
  7. resources
  8. technologies
  9. enforcement
  10. civil
  11. linkedin
  12. budget
  13. surveillance
  14. gamma
  15. heard
  16. surprising
  17. detailing
  18. research

Original Text


So as I said before, governments that don't really have the resources to build their own tools will buy off-the-shelf surveillance software, and so for that reason, you see that the government of, say, Tunisia, might use the same software as the government of Germany. They're all buying off-the-shelf stuff. The Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States does have the budget to build their own surveillance technology, and so for several years, I've been trying to figure out if and how the FBI is hacking into the computers of surveillance targets.

My friends at an organization called the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- they're a civil society group — obtained hundreds of documents from the FBI detailing their next generation of surveillance technologies. Most of these documents were heavily redacted, but what you can see from the slides, if I zoom in, is this term: Remote Operations Unit. Now, when I first looked into this, I'd never heard of this unit before. I've been studying surveillance for more than six years. I'd never heard of it. And so I went online and I did some research, and ultimately I hit the mother lode when I went to LinkedIn, the social networking site for job seekers. There were lots of former U.S. government contractors who had at one point worked for the Remote Operating Unit, and were describing in surprising detail on their CVs what they had done in their former job. (Laughter) So I took this information and I gave it to a journalist that I know and trust at the Wall Street Journal, and she was able to contact several other former law enforcement officials who spoke on background and confirmed that yes, in fact, the FBI has a dedicated team that does nothing but hack into the computers of surveillance targets. Like Gamma and Hacking Team, the FBI also has the capability to remotely activate webcams, microphones, steal documents, get web browsing information, the works.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
law enforcement 5
hacking team 4
surveillance targets 3
telephone calls 2
text messages 2
gamma international 2
egyptian government 2
human rights 2
enforcement officials 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
law enforcement officials 2


Important Words


  1. activate
  2. background
  3. browsing
  4. budget
  5. build
  6. bureau
  7. buy
  8. buying
  9. called
  10. capability
  11. civil
  12. computers
  13. confirmed
  14. contact
  15. contractors
  16. cvs
  17. dedicated
  18. describing
  19. detail
  20. detailing
  21. documents
  22. electronic
  23. enforcement
  24. fact
  25. fbi
  26. federal
  27. figure
  28. foundation
  29. friends
  30. frontier
  31. gamma
  32. gave
  33. generation
  34. germany
  35. government
  36. governments
  37. group
  38. hack
  39. hacking
  40. heard
  41. heavily
  42. hit
  43. hundreds
  44. information
  45. investigation
  46. job
  47. journal
  48. journalist
  49. laughter
  50. law
  51. linkedin
  52. lode
  53. looked
  54. lots
  55. microphones
  56. mother
  57. networking
  58. obtained
  59. officials
  60. online
  61. operating
  62. operations
  63. organization
  64. point
  65. reason
  66. redacted
  67. remote
  68. remotely
  69. research
  70. resources
  71. seekers
  72. site
  73. slides
  74. social
  75. society
  76. software
  77. spoke
  78. states
  79. steal
  80. street
  81. studying
  82. stuff
  83. surprising
  84. surveillance
  85. targets
  86. team
  87. technologies
  88. technology
  89. tools
  90. trust
  91. tunisia
  92. ultimately
  93. unit
  94. united
  95. wall
  96. web
  97. webcams
  98. worked
  99. works
  100. years
  101. zoom